thursday confessions

so i have so much stuff i've been working on that i need to share with ya'll...pinterest crafts, painting and re-doing the house, etc.  but i am too lazy to get out the camera right now so i thought i would do a quick fun blog today.

i have read on another blog where she did weekly confessions.  i may not do these weekly, but when i do them, i will try to stick to thursdays.  today's confession was inspired by the picture my sweet husband posted on my facebook today highlighting the difference between a man and a woman taking a shower. its pretty funny.

so my confession is:  sometimes, when i am really dirty but also want to take a bath, i take what i call a shower-bath.  i start the bathtub going with bubbles and salts, have my book right there ready to go, and then i hop in the shower to wash up.  once i am all clean from the shower, i wrap up my hair, and then still wet, jump in the bathtub to soak and read. the whole process takes about an hour and a half, and when i come out there is no hot water for a week and i am a complete prune.  but oh my, it is so nice and relaxing. 

on top of that confession, i have one more related one.  i read my kindle in the bathtub, and i am so scared of dropping it in the water that i put it in a quart sized ziploc.  i am too cheap/lazy to buy a waterproof cover (do they even make those?) and the quart size fits it perfectly.  there are probably 4 or 5 ziplocs floating around our master bath at any given time. 

kristin

a pretty good thursday.

thursday, nov 15th

yes, yes i know its friday NOW, but i wanted to tell yall about my thursday YESTERDAY!  it was a great day!

first, i had my presentation at work.  i had to present a status update on the global competency program (which i am in charge of) to our product service line (PSL) VP.  also present was my boss, the global human asset manager, the global sales director, and the global services director, and 5 of his direct reports.  needless to say, i was probably out-paid in that room by at the minimum $30K.  i was super nervous all through the other updates (revenue, growth, training, etc) and then when it came to my turn, i just took a deep breath and was like "ok no one else knows this like you do, k-dawg." and i NAILED it!  the VP (who i have met about once) was saying how awesome it was, how good my roll out plan was looking, etc.  i told him what i needed from leadership (communication to the employees about their sponsorship and backing of the program) and he said he would send an email out ASAP for me!  it was pretty legit. then he came to my office after the meeting and asked me about my 2012 intern program and how the offers were looking for FT on that.  (we are at about a 45% rate of turnover from an intern to a FT employee).  so i pretty much nailed that too! holla!

after the meeting, i ran out to meet my mom for the young house love book signing.  she was a dear and was already holding my place in line, so we didnt have too long of a wait. i was all jazzed up about my kickass presentation, and was in the process of telling her about it, when the girl behind us interrupted. i was totally freaked out, thinking she was going to call me out on cutting and make me go to the back of the line. (it was around the entire building at that point).  but, nope! she works at landmark also and had heard me say our VP's name and put two and two together!  ummm, insta besties!  to top that off, she also is on weight watchers! ha.  its the little things.  so we chatted it up with her and my mom while we waited.  smallest world EVER!

then, the west elm workers came by with cookies and hot cocoa.  they were presh.

after that, we got inside and we got closer and closer to john and sherry. eeeee!!!  then we were there!  my mom and i, and our new friend, all got a little nervous.  but they were super sweet and looked just like their blog pics in person.  here we are getting all signed up!!

my new bestie jumped in!  hey hillary!

we were done with the book signing by like 7:30, so mom and i got in my car and went to check out the new trader joes.  um, hello love.  i have gone to a couple in california, and back when i was travelling for work a lot i would go in chicago, but holy toldeo. i have never gone for an actual shopping trip!  mom and i walked up and down every single aisle, exclaiming over just about everything.  ("omg look at this asparagus! its ginormus! and its only $2.99!!!!")  it was awesome.  i ended up spending $130 and she spent around $80.  but we got SO. MUCH. STUFF.  my produce drawer is chalk full right now, which makes me a happy girl!

after that, we went over to eat a healthy dinner at zoe's kitchen, and i dropped madre back off at her car.  pretty much the end to a great day, right?

WRONG!  when i got back to my neighborhood, i saw a small beagle running around on the side of this house.  i thought, oh weird, i bet those people don't know their dog is out! so i stopped the car and went to the front door to let them know. the dog was SO SWEET.  he came right up to me and was all waggy, and i noticed that he was an ollllld man, probably 10-11 years old.  and a very small beagle! we had a beagle growing up (shoutout to barney in doggie heaven! miss you bud!) and so i couldn't just leave him. i asked the lady at the house if he was hers, and she said no and shut her door pretty quick.  i can't say i blame her, it was about 9:30 on a thursday night. 

so in my car pup went.  he wouldnt jump, or he was too old/fat/small to jump, so i picked him right up and set him in there.  once i got to the house, oliver came outside to see, and after he got done eating, we drove around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking people if they were missing a beagle and if not, did they know anyone who was?  this whole time the cute dog was just in the floor board of the front passenger seat of my car.  he seemed a little scared of oliver, but everytime i ran back down to the car after a unsucessful knock, he would wag like crazy.  he was so cute!

this really wasnt him, but he looked just like this one!

finally, someone pointed us to a certain house where they knew the lady had beagles.  turns out, he wasnt hers either, but she knew the owner and offered to take the little dude back to them.  beagle owners unite, i guess!  so i carried him over to her and said my goodbyes.  he was cute, but peeee-ew he was stinky!

when we got home, harley was all "why you cheatin on me, mom?" and she was a little cold towards me this morning too. but when i left, she gave me my usual goodbye kiss.  so i guess we are good.


and that was my eventful and fun thursday!  how was yours?

til next time!

kristin

engaged and underaged.

our engagement story....pulled from my old blog

Our little house in Fredericksburg

 

Our proposal story is actually a story about me being a huge brat and Oliver putting up with me.  Basically the story of our whole relationship! :o)  We were going to Fredericksburg for our 3 year anniversary, (surprise trip planned by yours truly) and on the way there, we were fighting because I thought that he hadn't done anything for our anniversary.  I had packed all of the bags and taken care of the arrangements, and the only thing that he put in the car was his stupid laptop bag from work.


Well, on the way to Fredericksburg, we argued the entire way, ranging from the way we should get there (I took I-10 for some reason, and even though he didn't know where we were going, he thought we should take 290), to where we would stop for lunch, to him working too much, etc. You get the picture.

first arriving at the house

 

Finally, about 4.5 hours later, we arrived in Fredericksburg and got the keys to our little cottage off Main Street. When we walked into the cottage, it was SO cute and shabby chic, I couldn't keep being mad at him, so I decided to just get over it and try to have a good weekend. He suggested that we run up to Wal-Mart to get some essentials for the house, so while we were there, we passed the jewlery counter, and I told him "You can make up forgetting the anniversary if you just bought me a ring right now" thinking that he would probably laugh, or gag, or run the other way, which is what he usually did when I talked about rings.  Instead, he pulled me towards the counter and said "Fine, prove it. Is this really what you want? A wal mart ring?"  And I said, " whatever it takes!!" 


So we ended up leaving without a ring (thank goodness!) and went back to the house.  We decided to have some beer (him) and wine (me) and get in the jacuzzi.  He played some Jack Johnson and I was finally unwinding after being so uptight all day when he got out to "get some more wine".  He came back with something behind his back and a weird grin on his face, and him being Oliver, I thought it was just a practical joke, like he was going to throw a frog in there or something.

the tub!

 

Lo and behold, he came around to the side of the tub and got on one knee, and said "titi, will you marry me?" with one of our favorite Jack songs playing in the background.  It was the perfect moment and of course I started crying and shaking all over.  After I got out and got dried off, we started calling all of our friends and family, all of which had NO CLUE that he was going to propose.  The only ones that knew were our friends Kyle and Rachael, and I had actually called Rachael that morning to complain about Oliver, not knowing he had picked up the ring the night before! 

 

right after

Anyway, that is our story, so we will definitley be going back to the house for our one year wedding anniversary to relive the moment.  :o)

later that night at a local bar

tidbits

-i started back weight watchers on monday and started back crossfit last week.  i stopped taking some medicines in september and since then my body is all "WHOA!!! what do you think youre doing?!?!" and i gained weight like crazy.  so far, i have lost about 3lbs.  only 15 more to go! ha.

-today i have to present to the vice president of my product service line, a guy who is two steps away from the president of halliburton.  NBD. 

-we have been married 6 months! (and 3 days....) the first 6 months was good but hard.  we had some family tragedies, some good vacations, some whopper fights, and some happy days. we started two new jobs, started back working out, and tried to make some healthy changes.  here's to the next 6 months!

-one of my best friends is getting married in march!!  eee! i am getting really excited. i am her matron of honor and i get to be in charge of the couples shower and the bachelorette party.  hello, pinterest marathon. 

-we are painting and overhauling our entire house.  hes moving his office, i am moving the dining room, we are painting the living room and bedroom, getting new furniture. i feel like we both have an internal list that we want to accomplish in the next 6-8 months before we really feel settled into marriage and stuff.  its weird. do other couples feel like that? for us, we want to get the house in order, pay off some credit card debt, get a little healthier, buy a boat, and go on some rad vacations before we start thinking about kids.  its like a mental checklist or something. 


-tonight my mom and i are going to a book signing for sherry and john from younghouselove. if you dont read it, you totally should.  love them! i am so excited! (and nerdy.)

til next time!

kristin

when turkeys attack

killer turkey on the loose...

so a coworker sent me an e-card today about a turkey escaping with its head, and that, coupled with this link i saw yesterday reminded me that i have never written down my killer turkey from outer space attack story.

for christmas 2011, oliver, ian, and i bought oliver's parents a trip to fredericksburg, to be taken on their anniversary.  (valentines day).  part of that present was that oliver and i would go mantain the farm while sheila and dave enjoyed a relaxing weekend in the wine country. 

their house is outside of huntsville in the woods.  its a gorgeous home surrounded by their man-made pond, tons of gardens (including veggies), a shop, horse and chicken pens, and then the woods continue on behind their house.  its where we had our engagement party and where we usually have the mccartney side thanksgiving. they have two horses (smokey and chloe), 3 dogs (kubo, shasta, and bear), 4 peacocks, tons of chickens, and probably a snake or two.  and a turkey.

so on the weekend when sheila and dave were enjoying a great weekend in fredericksburg, oliver and i were heading to the farm in huntsville to feed the animals twice and day and generally maintain the house.  during that saturday, oliver was working on his old truck, which was parked at sheila and dave's house, and in doing so, ended up getting his new truck AND the old truck stuck in the mud.  after hours of trying to dig them both out, the neighbors finally took pity on him and brought over their tractor to pull out the truck. 

so already, this was not a super great day. 

after the truck debacle, we were getting ready to go to dinner at a nice restaurant in huntsville (his parents had surprised us with reservations and a gift card) but we still needed to feed the animals and get ourselves ready.  the truck thing set us back a bit, so i went off to feed the chickens while oliver worked on the dogs food and started on the horses.  i had already fed the chickens their morning food, so i was confident in my dinner-time feeding, but mistakenly, i wore a halliburton red jacket into the pen while feeding them.

mistake # 1: apparently, you do NOT wear red in front of a male turkey in mating season. 


the turkey started squwaking and running at me, flapping its wings and doing these little hops.  i didnt know what to do, so i grabbed a stick and sorta waved it at the turkey.  in the meantime, i was also trying to herd in the female turkeys so they could get their dinner.

mistake # 2: don't try to herd female turkeys in front of their male while wearing red while said male is in mating season.

this made the turkey even madder, which in turn made me even more scared.  i backed out of the chicken coop and tried to shut the door on the turkey, but he was a sneaky little devil and followed me out into the horse pen.  i kept backing up, waving my stick at him, and he kept charging me, waving his wings around, gobble gobbleing at me, and generally being a bully. after about 20 yards of our turkey dance, i realized he wasn't going to quit.  and i sure wasn't going to turn my back on him and run, so i really started panicking at this point. 

the dogs, being ever so helpful, were running down the outside of the horse pen barking at me and Tom the turkey. i couldn't tell if they were cheering him on or me.  i started to really freak out and was screaming olivers name. "COME SAVE ME!!! THIS TURKEY MEANS BUSINESS!! ARGGHHH!!!"

he, again, ever so helpfully, says "just wave the stick at him!"  sigh. men.  "I HAVE BEEN WAVING THIS STICK FOR 30 YARDS, ALL THE WAY ACROSS THIS PEN! HE IS GOING TO SCRATCH MY EYES OUT! "

finally, my loving husband (fiancee at the time) grudingly came over to save me from the killer turkey attack.  he bascially raised his arms over his head and ran at tom, and tom ran away.  i burst into tears right there in the horse pen, and oliver didnt know whether to laugh at me or to stomp away in disgust.

after i calmed down, we fed the horses (actually, one of the horses tried a short reenactment of the turkey attack on me, but oliver got him to quit) and then cleaned up and went out for our nice dinner.  they didnt have turkey on the menu, or else i would have ordered it.


The End.


PS.  Guess who we are eating for thanksgiving? 

kristin

tuesday randoms...

tuesday randoms....

-i smell cups before i drink out of them.  every time.  if they smell even a tiny bit fishy, i get a different cup.  i tend to lean towards plastic because glass is usually the fishyer smelling material.

-when i get in an elevator, i think about what food/drink i have in my purse and how long i could survive on it before i died if the elevator gets stuck.

-on my way to work, when i am putting on my makeup, i have "goals" for myself.  "ok, lets have my powder and bronzer and blush on before i get on the freeway"  lets get on that eyeshadow before i hit 59".  it makes the drive interesting.

-today i voted for the first time ever.  it felt like the first day of school.  kinda nervous!

-i really like the smell of: tires, gasoline, babies, puppys breath, anything in a crock pot, fresh laundry.

-i can make almost any show/event/conversation into a drinking game.  and win.

-speed reading is my specialty. i can read an average length book in about 6-8 hours of reading time.  double that if i am on a plane.  this gets very expensive!

-our washer and dryer make these sounds when the loads are done, and the first time i heard it oliver sang along with it "happy noises! happy noises!" so i hear that in my head every time and cringe and hate him a little.

-hummingbirds are my favorite animal. 


that's all i can think of.  happy tuesday!

kristin